San Francisco Fires
by Kathryn0505
Summary: In 1906, Pam and Eric find themselves in the middle of the earthquake and ensuing fires that really did consume the city. Also, ParicTBLover4life wondered about the first time Pam cried in front of Eric; here it is!


**A/N: I was reading about the earthquake and fires in 1906 San Francisco and thought it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I tried to keep this as plausible as possible. I hope you guys enjoy! **

TRUE BLOOD

It was 1906, only a few months since Eric had made his progeny, Pamela. He had been hesitant to turn her but was ultimately glad he had done so. For the first time in several centuries he had a constant companion, someone to share his experiences with. It was something he never knew he wanted until he had it.

They had remained in San Francisco for the time being. Eric was in no rush, and this city had been home to Pamela for many years and he was surprised to learn she was reluctant to leave it. He had decided that they would remain for several months until they could grow accustomed to one another, hoping that a familiar environment would ease the transition for her.

They were currently staying in a small home whose owner was elsewhere. They believed him to be away for an extended period of time but if he should return while they resided there they would merely glamour him and send him away once more. It was something Eric had frequently done and it always worked well. Besides, he doubted Pam would appreciate being buried in the local cemetery for the day. Even the thought of her getting dirty disgusted her.

It was approaching dawn and Pam had already retired for the day. She was still so young that she slept the entire day and then a bit more around sunrise and sunset. He looked over to see her laying comfortably on the surprisingly soft bed and decided he should prepare himself for day as well.

As he got up to change his clothes, he felt a sudden jolt. He hadn't lived 1000 years without feeling an earthquake before and as it was California they were in so he was not surprised. The tremors subsided and a glance at Pam confirmed that she had slept through it. It took a great deal to wake a baby vampire during the day. Or pre-dawn, as it were.

He ran a hand down her arm before beginning to undress beside their bed. Suddenly the room began to shake once more, much more violently than before.

He'd experienced many earthquakes, but this was stronger than most. Parts of the home they were in were groaning and he feared that soon the house would collapse entirely. The debris would not harm them, but exposure to sunlight would. It looked like Pam would be sleeping in the ground, after all.

"Pamela!" he shook her as the earthquake continued. "Pam, you must wake up." He gave her an especially strong shake until she jolted awake, tiny fangs popping out of their own volition.

Her eyes were unfocused but they soon widened, taking in the shaking of the earth.

"We must go," he told her.

She got out of bed obediently but didn't understand. "Why? It's not as though we can be crushed."

"No, but the building can cave in and expose us to sunlight," he said, watching as she quickly dressed.

In many ways Pam had adapted easily to being a vampire. She had no qualms over taking human life and even reveled in it. Remembering her new limitations, though, was where she failed and she did not have enough experience as a vampire to know what to do in these situations.

"Where are we going?" she said, looking to him for what to do next.

"Somewhere we can dig a large enough hole for us both," he replied before the shaking stopped completely.

"It's stopped, Eric," she argued. "The building is fine."

"And what if there is another? That is the second I felt," he explained. "Come," he beckoned, waiting for her to move past him as he grabbed her arm to move her along.

"We don't have long before dawn," he said. They were cutting it pretty close with only half an hour to spare. They needed to find somewhere as soon as possible. Those thoughts in mind, he scooped her up against her protests and shot into the sky, knowing he would have a better view of any parks or fields from the air.

A wide area of grass was easily spotted. It seemed to be an abandoned lot with nearby houses looking like they had seen better days, even before the quake. He quickly had them there and digging, though Pamela complained that her nails would never recover.

"What is that?" she said, pointing over a few blocks. He looked to see what had caught her eye and saw smoke rising from behind several buildings.

"Fire," he said. "Continue digging."

"It's over there, as well!" she suddenly exclaimed. Sure enough, in the opposite direction more smoke was rising.

"We will be fine so long as we are buried," he told her. "Now, dig!"

He did not need to tell her again and they finally were able to dig a deep enough hole to protect them from any sunlight or fire, though the buildings in flames were far away.

TRUE BLOOD

"Sleep, Pam," he told her, spooning her in their dirty grave. They had been laying beside one another for nearly forty-five minutes and he could feel that sunrise had passed, though the blood from Pam's ears would have given the approximate time.

Pam was tense and nearly too afraid to sleep. Earthquakes did not frighten her; she had lived in San Francisco long enough to have felt several and it appeared that today's quakes had passed. What really scared her was the possibility of fire. It was one of a vampire's few weaknesses, and although Eric had deemed it safe enough here, she found herself straining to hear what was happening outside.

"Do you think the fires will spread?" she asked anxiously.

"No," he said, though he had his doubts himself.

"You do!" she said. They'd been together less than a year and it seemed she already could tell when he was lying, albeit to reassure her.

"They may spread," he conceded, "but the flames will not reach us here."

She pressed back into him, glad to feel that his arms tightened around her. She took an unneeded breath, hoping it would calm her a bit.

"Rest," he told her once more. "I will remain awake." There was really nothing they could do, seeing as it was daylight and they were trapped there for the day, but he felt it might make her feel better if one of them was alert.

She nodded and he kissed her neck. With the sun rising in the sky, it did not take much relaxing on her part for her to slip into sleep.

TRUE BLOOD

Eric stayed awake for a few hours before deciding that it would be okay to get a few hours of sleep. Everything seemed to be fine and there were only a few hours till sunset.

He woke that night, as always, before Pam. He contemplated getting out of the grave to see what was happening but thought Pam might be worried if she woke without him beside her. Instead, he waited till she woke on her own.

He was pulling her from the ground when he heard her gasp.

"Oh my god," she breathed, looking at the surrounding blocks. Large fires were blazing and there was smoke everywhere.

"Well, it looks like it spread," he said.

"We should leave," she said. There was no reason to stay any longer now that it was dark. She wished to find somewhere safe for the next day and grab a snack.

"And miss the fun?" Eric asked.

"Eric," she paused. "I have dirt in places I don't even want to think about. I'm hungry. I want to wash up and find some clean clothes." _I want to get away from the fire_, she didn't say.

He gave her a glance as she crossed her arms over her chest. Natural disasters were usually a very chaotic time. People were displaced from their homes and their fright made their blood taste exquisite. He couldn't believe that Pam didn't want to enjoy this.

"Let's take a look around," he said. "Then we shall see about getting you cleaned up."

She sighed in annoyance and he took that to mean she agreed. Together they began to walk down their block, soon coming into contact with a few panicked faces. Smaller fires had taken out many homes and it didn't seem to be slowing down.

The farther they walked, the more he realized the extent of the damage. Smoke was still billowing into the night sky in alarming amounts. He had thought that merely a few fires were going but it seemed like the blaze was starting to encompass all of the surrounding area.

"Sir," Eric spoke to someone on the street. "Can you tell me what has happened?"

"Where've you been? The whole city is going to burn!"

"How extensive are the fires?" Eric glamoured.

"Bad," the man answered. "Whole blocks are gone, people are fleeing."

He turned to Pam who looked uneasy, though she would never say so directly. The night Pam admitted to a feeling of vulnerability would be a miraculous one.

Without bothering to say anything else to the man, Eric told Pam, "We should leave San Francisco."

"What?" she asked. "I was talking about this area!"

"The whole city could burn, Pam," he explained. "It is still early and we have time to leave now. We will find a meal and head on our way."

"Where will we go?" she asked. She had grown to trust him in the time they had been together, but they had not yet left the city.

"For now, we will go to a nearby town until we know our final stop. Let us find a meal. This way." He guided her into a series of small alleyways, hoping to find some unfortunate person who was alone. If he had been alone he would have left immediately, but he knew it would be better for Pam if she ate now since they weren't sure where they would end up or how long it would take.

Unfortunately it seemed as though all of the humans were cowering in fear together. Even those who would normally be alone out on the streets had gathered together to witness some of the businesses and homes burning.

He finally found a man and his wife who were frantically running in and out of their house. It seemed as though they were trying to gather important items from their home before it caught fire. They were on the end of the block, in a secluded enough area that he felt it would be safe to feed from them without drawing any attention.

He indicated to Pamela before he sped over and grabbed the man as he stood on his porch.

"Invite us in," he glamoured the man.

"Won't you come in?" he asked in a daze.

Pamela chased after the woman as she was making her way inside. Eric and his meal were standing in the front room of the house when Eric started to drain him.

Pam had gone racing up the stairs after the woman and pounced on her as she entered the bedroom. She muffled her scream with her hand and tore into her neck. She had nearly finished when suddenly there was a great groan and she found herself on the floor in pain.

TRUE BLOOD

Eric was just finishing dinner and licking the blood from his lips when he heard a huge crashing sound from the back of the house. He froze for a moment, realizing that Pam had gone in that direction.

"Pam?" he called, dropping the man's dead weight to the floor. "Pamela!"

He ran up the stairs to find that a large part of the second floor was open to the air. Part of the house had given out, the heat of the fires burning so closely for so long enough to bring down a portion of the house already compromised structurally by the quake and by age.

"Eric?" he heard her groan. "I'm here," she wheezed. He looked down to see that she had been unfortunate enough to have been standing where the house caved in. She was laying sprawled on the first floor, debris half on top of her.

Easily jumping down beside her, he pushed the remains of the house off of her and out of his way.

"Are you okay?" he asked, knowing instantly she was not. He tried to calm himself but the sight of his new, only progeny laying helplessly on the floor was making it difficult.

"It hurts," she whimpered.

"What does?" he asked, checking her over.

"Everything." She had never known anything to be this painful.

He finished his check and discovered that both of her legs had snapped underneath her and she had a piece of debris coming through her torso. Wooden, it was thankfully not near her heart. She would be fine shortly, but it was going to be a painful little while.

"Pam?" he asked, waiting as she brought her eyes to his. He stroked her hair away from her face.

"It hurts," she told him. She tried to move and found that she could not. Panic washed over her face.

"I know," he said. "You have a piece of debris through your chest. I'm going to have to pull it out." A further look showed that the item was part of the kitchen cabinets and that it was keeping her pinned to the floor. He could rip it out, but it was going to hurt

"What?" she asked. She was having trouble concentrating. Pain and shock were swirling around inside her and she found it hard to focus on the situation.

"I'm just going to pull it out," he repeated. As he moved to grab onto the object, she reached up to his hands.

"Don't!" she said.

"I have to," he told her. "Unless you want to lay here forever."

"Am I going to die?" she asked, voice cracking.

He looked to her face in surprise. He might have laughed if she wasn't clearly so serious and afraid. He realized that while he had told her of all the ways vampires could meet the true death, she had not yet been injured as a vampire and had never seen the healing they were capable of.

"No, Pam," he said tenderly. "You're a vampire. You'll heal, I promise. Your legs are already feeling better aren't they?"

She focused for a moment to realize that there was no more pain below her waist. The throbbing was concentrated to her chest, and she realized she must have healed part of her injuries.

She nodded in response to his question and then screamed as he took the opportunity to rip the shard of wood out of her.

"Sorry! Sorry," he said. He figured for all the talking about it they were doing he should save them both some trouble and just go ahead and rip it out.

"Did you get to eat?" he asked.

She was too engrossed with feeling her wound heal itself to answer his question. She suddenly felt 100 times better.

"I see you did," he said when he saw how quickly the wound closed. "Let's get out of this house before more of it comes down."

She moved to get to her feet and Eric helped her stand. Together they made their way out of the house and into the street once more. She needed to eat again after the toll her injuries had taken on her body.

"I will be right back," he said, knowing he could quickly grab someone for her. She said nothing in response and he turned to look at her. To his surprise, bloody tears were welling in her eyes.

"Pam?" he asked, reaching out to touch her arm. She shrunk in on herself, hand reaching up to cover her face as she felt her emotions begin to overflow. The whole day and night had been stressful. She'd only been a vampire for a few months and she found it difficult to stop thinking of danger in the context of being human. She was fine now, but she'd been genuinely frightened just a few minutes earlier. She'd miraculously healed herself, but she was finding herself a bit overwhelmed.

Eric's grip on her arm tightened and he pulled her closer to him. "You okay?" He wasn't really sure what to do, not often finding himself in the presence of crying women whom he was not in the process of killing.

She nodded and he saw that tears had fallen down her cheeks. He correctly assumed that his baby vampire was just feeling the effects of the long night and day.

He tugged her closer so that he could pull her into a hug. He wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but he figured it couldn't hurt. She resisted a bit at first but soon gave in.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, embarrassed beyond belief. They had things to do before they could get out of this fiery nightmare of a town and she was wasting time. She leaned back from him and wiped the blood on her dress, figuring it was ruined anyway.

Eric frowned, recognizing that she wasn't comfortable with her display. He wanted her to feel comfortable with him but knew he wasn't exactly the most warm and tender-hearted person or vampire. It would take time for her to undo a life's worth of distrust.

"Why?" he asked her. She was looking up at him sheepishly, like she was afraid he was going to be angry.

"We should be leaving," she said, half-answering his question.

He took her face gently in his hands and leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead. He couldn't find the words to explain to her how much he wished she could be open with him. He supposed they would only grow closer in time.

"You have no need to be sorry," he whispered.

She looked into his eyes, seeing that he was being sincere. Her father had taught her early in life that no one cared about your tears. Instead of comforting her, her family had punished her and yelled for wasting their time with her dramatics. It seemed that Eric did not subscribe to the same philosophy, and it made her even more glad that he had allowed her to be at his side.

Affection washed over her and she leaned up to kiss his lips. He kissed her back for a few long moments before pulling back.

"Let's get you a meal and some clothes," he told her. The fires didn't seem to be getting any worse where they were, but the sooner they could go the better.

She nodded. "Thank you."

He smiled down at her but said nothing as he led her into the night. Soon they would begin their travels, happy with each other's company.


End file.
